There is So Much More | Part 1

In Christ we have so much of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Welcome to Love Worth Finding, featuring the insightful teaching of Adrian Rogers. This modern world is trying to obliterate the word sin from our language. Everything is excused by psychology, evolution, human studies and behavioral science. Yet the real root of the problem is sin.

But if we don't understand the bad news of sin, we're not really ready for the good news of the Gospel. A friend told me years ago about traveling with another friend to California. The one man had never seen an ocean.

Not any kind. He had not seen the Atlantic Ocean. He had not seen the Pacific Ocean. He was waiting for that day when he would see that great Pacific Ocean.

And so the two of them went together, my friend was telling me about this, and they came over the brow of a hill and there was the Pacific Ocean. They sat there for a while and my friend said I was waiting for the man who had seen the ocean for the first time to say something. And after a while he said, well, what do you think? He said, well, somehow it's not as big as I thought it would be. Well, he had a limited view. There's only so much he could see. But, friend, there was so much more. And that's what I want to talk to you about today is the Gospel.

And I'm afraid that many of us only have a limited view of the Gospel. I heard of a preacher and his son who were traveling down a street and they saw a house that was on fire and they realized that there may be danger inside the house and so they went and knocked on the door and nobody came to the door and they wondered whether people were in there and what was their responsibility. And finally, they just broke the door down. Wasn't their house, but they broke the door down, the preacher and his son.

They went in, couldn't find anybody in the house, but they took all the furniture out of the house and set the furniture outside the house while the fire department was coming because they also notified the fire department. Later on, the preacher thought that was a great illustration and so he was using it in his sermon and so he was telling everybody about how he and his son had gone down the road, seen this house, broke down the door, went in and carried the furniture out and set it on the street. And he said people looked at him, it's kind of strange. When he got home, he did as preachers are wont to do. He discussed the sermon with his wife. He said, you know, somehow I thought that was a good illustration, but it just fell flat.

She said, I'll tell you why. You forgot to tell them the house was on fire. If you go and break down somebody's door and put all the furniture out in the front lawn and don't tell them the house is on fire, it kind of sounds strange, doesn't it? Now friend, it's the bad news, the house on fire that makes the good news good that we saved the furniture. Now you know that the word gospel means good. Good news.

And the word gospel is used some 90 times in the Bible because the Bible is the good news of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But I remind you that there is no good news without bad news. It's the bad news that makes the good news good.

It's the good news. And people don't want to hear the word sin anymore. That sin is the bad news. But can you imagine somebody standing up in one of our great universities today and saying, gentlemen, the problem in society is sin. Now we don't like the word sin.

It's so old fashioned. Today we have substituted, found euphemisms for sin. We call it error. We call it misjudgment. We call it weakness. We call it psychological maladjustment.

The evolutionists would call it a stumble upward. We have all kinds of new labels for old poison. We don't call a woman a harlot or a prostitute. She's a lady of the evening or call girl. A man is not a thief. He's a drunkard. They're an alcoholic. A person is not a pervert.

They have an alternative lifestyle. We just don't want to call sin sin. We have a behavioristic school of psychology today that says that man is just the sum total of the chemistry that makes up his body and the environment in which he was living. So whatever happens to him, he may be pitied, but he's certainly not to be blamed. Maybe he was reared in the wrong neighborhood. Maybe he had an unhappy childhood. He couldn't push his oatmeal off the highchair.

Maybe he had a domineering mother. He's just the sum total of his genes and chromosomes, the chemistry inside his body, and the environment in which he was living. And the evolutionists, the evolutionists noticed that man is an accident of nature, that he came out of some primordial soup, some fortuitous confluence of atoms, and out of this prebiotic soup, man came.

If that's true, he's gone from soup to nuts. And that's the idea, that since man is an accident, since he evolved, then there's no need for God. And if there's no God, there's no fixed standard of right or wrong. And since there can be no fixed standard of right and wrong, ipso facto, there can be no sin. And so if there's no sin, you don't need the gospel. There's no bad news.

So who needs the good news? And so the humanist would tell you that sin is the invention of the church to keep everybody in line. And that's the reason the liberal preachers today don't preach on sin anymore because they don't want to be blamed that way.

As a matter of fact, one liberal preacher said this, and I want to quote. He said, it's nonsense. Friend, that man may call himself a theologian. You know, the word theologian comes from two words, theos, which means God, and logos, which means the word. That man doesn't believe the word. He doesn't know God. So why should he call himself a theologian?

He's like grape nuts, neither grapes nor nuts. I'm telling you, folks, that we have a generation of people who are spurred on by behavioristic psychology, evolution, humanistic thinking, which makes man the center of everything. And people don't, they don't understand the bad news. So they're not ready for the good news. Now it's the bad news that makes the good news good.

And what is the good news? For when we were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet peradventure, for a good man, some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now here's our word, much more than.

Being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Verse 9, much more. The title of the message there is so much more. Now I want you to think with me for the next few minutes.

If you don't think for the next few minutes, you're going to miss everything I'm trying to say. There are three words or phrases that are key in the rest of this passage on down to the end of the chapter. One key word is the word O-N-E, one.

It is used 11 times. Now I'm going to go in a hurry, take your Bible, stare at it, look in verse 12, by one man. Look, if you will, in verse 15, the offense of one. Look at the last part of verse 15, which is by one man. Look in verse 16, it was by one that sinned. The middle of verse 16 was by one to condemnation. Look at the beginning of verse 17.

For as by one man's offense. Look at the end of verse 17, reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Look at verse 18, therefore, as by the offense of one. Look at the last part of verse 18, the righteousness of one. Look at the beginning of verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience.

Look in the last part of verse 19, the obedience of one. Well, you say, I don't understand what that means. I don't want you to understand it right now.

I'll tell you later. All I want you to notice is one one. One, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one, one.

When he starts repeating something that much, you begin to listen. So the key word is one. Now, what are you saying is that you are identified with one man. That one man may be Adam, and you may be lost and on your road to hell. Or that one man may be Jesus, you may be saved and on your road to heaven. But everybody is related, linked to one man.

That's what all of this is saying. You are linked to one man. In Adam, all die. In Christ, all are made alive. Now, you are in Adam, that one man, by your first birth. You get into Jesus, one man, by your new birth. Everybody was born into Adam. And then you get into Jesus, one man, by your new birth. Everybody was born into Adam.

And then you are born again into the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you're without Christ today, let me tell you that you are not now in the image of God. You are now in the image of Adam.

You are in Adam. Adam was made in the image of God, but then the image of God was marred and ruined in Adam. And then the Bible says that Adam brought forth a son after his likeness and in his image.

That's in Genesis 5, verse 3. We talk about man today being in the image of God. No.

I mean, folks, be reasonable. Do you think we're in the image of God? Well, look around. You think God's in this shape?

No. Adam was in the image of God. And that image was marred and ruined by sin.

And now we're in the image of Adam. Suppose you had never seen a train, not in all of your life, never seen a railroad train. And then I take you to see a train wreck.

The cars are all tumbled over. The steam is rising. There's fire.

There's a bent metal, chaos. And I say, there's a train. Well, have you seen a train? What you've seen is a train wreck. Now, over here, that man right there. Is that a man? No, that's a wreck. I mean, he's in the image of Adam. So are you and so am I and so are we. You see, look, what God created has been wrecked and ruined.

There's been a fall. In every body that is of Adam's progeny, we are in the image of one man, Adam. We get that by our first birth.

But when we're born again, we take on now a new image, the spiritual image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, somebody says, now, wait a minute. That's not fair. That's not fair.

Why should I get in trouble? Because of Adam. In the first place, I had absolutely nothing to do with Adam and Adam had nothing to do with me.

You don't really believe that. Listen, if Adam had died without children, you wouldn't be here. Adam had a lot to do with you. You are in the image of Adam. You have the idiosyncrasies and the proclivities and the sinful disposition of Adam that you have inherited from Adam and all of us are in Adam. Adam did have something to do with you, but you say, wait a minute. It's not fair that I should go to hell for Adam's sin.

Well, don't worry about that. You've sinned enough yourself, haven't you? Don't worry about Adam's sin. You better be grateful that God deals with one man because not only was it fair, it was wise and gracious because if we are condemned by Adam, one man, thank God we can be saved by Jesus, one man. Now you think about it. You think about it. You see, it is wise and gracious that God allowed Adam, our federal head, to stand for us.

That Jesus, our resurrected Lord, might also stand for us. So one key word here is the word one. Now let me give you another key word.

Are you still following after me? I want you to see now there's a second key word and that second key word is the word reign, R-E-I-G-N, which means to rule. And this word is used five times. Look in verse 14. Nevertheless, death reigned. Look if you will in verse 17.

For if by one man's offense, death reigned. Look if you will in the bottom of verse 17. And the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by Jesus Christ.

Look in verse 21. That as sin reigned unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life. Not only are there two men and you are linked to one man or the other man, but there are two kingdoms. There's a kingdom of death and destruction. And there's a kingdom of love and light and life. And you are in one of those two kingdoms today. You are ruling and reigning. Adam is the head of that old kingdom. Jesus is the head of that new kingdom. Now you get into the new kingdom by being born into that new kingdom. Now here's the third word. And now we're coming to the title of the message.

Remember, the title of the message is there's so much more. Now remember, you're in one man, either Adam or Christ. And because you're in Adam or because you're in Christ, you're in the kingdom of death or the kingdom of life.

You're in the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light. Third word, and actually it's two words, is much more. Now watch this and get ready for a blessing.

This is used five times. Look in verse nine, much more than. Look in verse 10, the end of verse 10, much more being reconciled. Look in verse 15, much more, the middle of verse 15, much more the grace of God. Look, if you will, in verse 17, first sentence, much more they which receive the abundance of grace. Look in the end of verse 20, much more abound. Much more, much more, much more, much more, much more. That fellow said, I was expecting more when I saw the Pacific Ocean, friend. There is much more, much more. Now I want you to see this.

Listen, here's the point. Don't miss it. You were in Adam. You got saved and you came into Christ.

Not that one man, but this one man. You came from the kingdom and the reign of death into the kingdom and the reign of life. And when you came out of Adam and you came into Jesus, here's the point and don't miss it. You gained much more in Jesus than you ever lost in Adam.

Don't miss it. You gained much more in Jesus than you ever lost in Adam. That's the reason, that's the reason I had rather live in Romans 5 than in the Garden of Eden. I had rather be a saved sinner than an innocent angel. Friend, we have so much more in the Lord Jesus Christ than Adam ever lost. That's the good news of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, let's look at it. First of all, we're going to see, number one, what we lost in Adam. Number two, we're going to see what we gained in Jesus.

Have you got that? Number one, what did we lose in Adam? Number two, what did we gain in Jesus? And you're going to see that we gained so much more in Jesus than we ever lost in Adam. All right, now what did we lose in Adam?

Well, look in verse six. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. In Adam, we lost strength and now we display weakness. In Adam, we lost strength.

Now, you see, today the sinner is without strength. Now, we're not talking about physical strength. We're not talking about financial strength. We're not talking about intellectual strength. We're talking about moral and spiritual strength. You see, you do not have in Adam what it takes to be what God made you to be. We are just simply without strength.

I mean, don't tell an unsaved man, do right, live right, be good. Folks, he can't. He can't. He is without strength. We lost strength and we display weakness. You are completely, totally without power to live the Christian life in Adam.

Now, here's the second thing you lost in Adam. We lost strength and display weakness. We lost godliness and display wickedness. Look again in this same scripture beginning in verse six. For when we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You see, we lost godliness and now we display wickedness.

And the Bible says we're sinners. The word for sin, the Greek word, hermatia, means to miss the mark. Like if you are in an archer and you're aiming at the bull's eye. I took a course in archery one time and I had irritated the instructor ahead of time. This was in college.

I thought it was going to be what we call a crip course. He knew what I was up to. They gave me a bow that Samson couldn't pull. And I'd never tried before.

I want to tell you, I was on the football team. I thought I was tough. I got that bow and I couldn't pull it and when I finally got it back, it was going all over like this. And then the arrow went... I made a fool of myself. You see, I didn't have the strength to pull the bow.

And I never hit the bull's eye. Now the Bible says this word sin means, it literally means missing the mark. And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message. In the meantime, maybe you have a prayer request you'd like to share with us. At Love Worth Finding, it's one of our greatest honors to come alongside you and pray with you and for you. If you can, go to our website homepage at lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to find our prayer wall. There you'll find the option to either submit a prayer request or pray for others. This resource is one of our favorite ways to keep the ministry and the community praying continually for one another's needs.

We can't wait to hear from you today. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and scroll down to our prayer wall. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, call us at 1-877-LOVE-GOD and mention the title, There is So Much More. This message is also part of the insightful series, Foundations for Our Faith, volume two. For that complete collection, all 27 powerful messages, call that number, 877-LOVE-GOD, or you can order online at lwf.org slash radio.

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